The present invention relates to the new and distinct Red Hot Poker, Kniphofia ‘Backdraft’ developed under the direction of the inventor at a wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich., USA in the summer of 2012. The new plant was the result of a single seedling selection from a cross of ‘Echo Rojo’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,791 as the female or seed parent and ‘Papaya Popsicle’ U.S. Plant Pat. No. 22,915 as the male or pollen parent in 2012. The plant passed initial evaluation in the summer of 2014 and was subsequently given the breeder code KNIP-12-402-12 prior to naming. Kniphofia ‘Backdraft’ has been successfully asexually propagated by division method since 2014 at the same wholesale perennial nursery in Zeeland, Mich. and subsequently by shoot tip tissue culture, and both methods have been found to be stable and produce identical plants that maintain the unique characteristics of the original plant through successive generations.